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Dr. Steve Hartman Keiser

Dr. Steve Hartman KeiserMarquette University

Marquette Hall, 229

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-3465s.hartman.keiser@mu.edu

Director of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor

English

"Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people." Trevor Noah

I am deeply interested in the power of the human voice to define us: to connect us to—and separate us from—a community, a place, a time, a worldview. My current project is to map and make visible the work of indigenous language revitalization in Milwaukee and beyond and in so doing to build sustainable connections between this work and Marquette as part of honoring the commitments we make in our Land and Water Acknowledgment to pay respect to the sovereignty, histories, knowledge and cultural traditions of the peoples whose land we live on and to "authentically attend to and create the conditions of hospitality for current Indigenous students and community members and all yet to walk with us."

The study of how language varies across space and time and communal identity is also part of my earlier research on the spread of linguistic change between Amish communities across North America.

In my classes students investigate both the marvelous systematicity of all languages and the intersection of language use with aspects of social identity such as age, ethnicity, gender, history, region, and religion.

Courses Taught

Linguistics
Sociolinguistics
Language in Milwaukee
Language and Gender
History of the English Languages

Research Interests

Linguistic change in Amish communities across the U.S.
Indigenous language revitalization in Milwaukee
Language variation and change
Dialectology

Publications

2015 "Religious Identity and the perception of linguistic difference: the case of Pennsylvania German” Language and Communication 42. (May 2015): 125-134.
2007 “Ditching the Immigration Line.” American Speech 82:3 (Fall 2007): 330-6.
2006 “Portable Community: The Linguistic and Psychological Reality of Midwestern Pennsylvania German.” Eds. Thomas Murray and Beth Simon. Language Variation and Change in the American Midland: A New Look at "Heartland" English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 263-74
2003 “Pennsylvania German and the ‘Lunch Pail Threat’: Language Shift and Cultural Maintenance in two Amish Communities.” When Languages Collide: Perspectives on Language Conflict, Language Competition, and Language Coexistence. Eds. B. Joseph, J. Destefano. N. Jacobs, I. Lehiste. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press. 3-20

Honors and Awards

2007 Summer Faculty Fellowship Grant. Marquette University. For writing A Dialectology of Pennsylvania German.
2004 Curriculum Enhancement Grant, Diversity. Marquette University. For course development: Language in the City, focusing on language and social diversity